Daily Illuminator Archive for July 2009

CONvergence is a convention in the Minneapolis area that's been getting a lot of buzz among my group of geek friends. So, for my vacation, I'm combining visits with family and friends with a busman's holiday, and will be attending CONvergence . . .
read article

Of course, when the scale is "1:1" and the item is question is a mech -- specifically, a RX-78-2 Gundam -- "model" becomes completely insufficient to describe it. Bandai has built the 18 meter tall structure in celebration of Mobile Suit Gundam's 30th anniversary . . .
read article

Nearly everyone knows Wikipedia, that treasure trove of knowledge occasionally corrupted by knuckleheads with more typing skill than sense. And we've all seen the various non-English versions on the http://www.wikipedia.org/ page . . .
read article

Now all you iPhone-using munchkins can get an unfair, yet completely legal, advantage when you play Munchkin or Munchkin Quest! The Munchkin Level Counter keeps track of your level (duh) . . .
read article

Or: Where was my e23 release last week?
We were, indeed, closed from June 29 through Sunday July 5. Being out of the office last Thursday prevented us from doing our normal weekly upload of PDF awesomeness . . .
read article

Last time we told you about the likelihood of giant armored spiders roaming the countryside (short recap: Oh, it's comin'), but that was Mother Nature's fault . . . with just a little help from our industrialized society. Sensing somehow (spider senses?) that Mankind was flirting with disaster, someone has answered the call . . .
read article

Revolution! is currently on the boat, heading towards our warehouse, where we expect to turn it around to land on shelves in August. But there are copies out there, being played by MIBs at various times . . .
read article

(This may seem like a long trip, but this is just how my brain works sometimes.) So, I'm channel-surfing the other day, and see Jon Stewart doing something goofy with a bunch of fake coffee products . . .
read article

When the Evilbad Cartel fired a missile into the home of Anton Hollick, there was one thing they didn't count on. Joe Kuzenza. Now the Evilbad Cartel face a man that missiles couldn't kill. With him is his companion Rolphie, a talking dog uplifted by Hollick . . .
read article

Phil discovered the Dallas Games Marathon about a year ago, but has been too busy to return to the monthly festivities with anything like the frequency he'd like. So this month, between his vacation in June and our GenCon plans* in August, he's heading up . . .
read article

We've got two new bookmarks we created for Fairy Dust and Waiting for Santa. We're saving them for the release dates . . . well, except for the handful SJ took to LibertyCon a few weeks ago . . .
read article

The Alcor open house will still take place at our office Saturday at 4pm, as planned. At the moment, though, it looks as though the medical professionals from Alcor will not be here; they've been called to a standby . . .
read article

Back in 1994, Jupiter got punched in the eye. Well, not the "eye" of the Great Red Spot, but Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 did slam into the gas giant with enough force to cause an impact spot the size of Earth . . .
read article

How's this for a denial? "We completely understand the public's concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population, but that is not our mission."
Harry Schoell is the CEO of Cyclone Power Technologies, makers of the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR). I would SO like to shake the hand of whoever came up with that acronym . . .
read article

Yesterday, the pallets of Revolution! arrived in our warehouse. Next Monday, the massive flood of cases will begin to flow, from us to various distributors to the shelves of your favorite game store . . .
read article

Back in 1980, when Steve Jackson Games was just a fledgling publisher, Elisabeth Zakes handled editing, playtesting, and the million other hats everyone at a start-up wears. She wandered away after a time, but now has returned! . . .
read article